A few years ago there was an extremely disturbing reality TV show called “To Catch A Predator.” The show was all about luring and then capturing men, who thought that they were meeting underage children for the purpose of sex. The show was taken off the air in 2008, but sent a chilling message to parents.  The sexual predator has evolved and is no longer wandering around playgrounds with a bag of candy.  They have become highly sophisticated internet experts, hanging-out online and infiltrating the sites where your children go.  But is the online predator a threat?

Statistics

• A recent survey that was carried out about internet predators, and asked over 1000 children aged between 10 and 17 concluded that:

• A figure of one in thirty three children had been asked to meet someone secretly.

• Just under a quarter of all child targets were aged 10 to 13.

As part of an on-going blog series that began two weeks ago, we have interviewed some internet safety experts, parenting experts and industry leaders and are pleased to present our findings. Our questions centered around 'digital parenting' and what people thought were the biggest issues regarding this subject.  

uKnowKids is pleased to announce that we have released our most important eBook yet! Entitled "Understanding Digital Parenting: The Essential Guide to Raising Connected Kids", this eBook is free of charge and jammed full of important information for parents of digital kids! Unlike previous generations, today’s parents struggle with trying to bridge an ever-growing information gap between what their child is doing online and what they can see their child doing at home. This eBook will help parents raise connected kids in a safe and trustworthy way. 

Cyberbullying has emerged as a new and pressing problem for schools and parents alike. The internet allows young people to participate in a world utterly removed from adult supervision: a world where bullying thrives and intimidation and harassment go unnoticed and unpunished by authority figures. 

Cyberbullying can take many forms – all of which can be potentially devastating. Cybullies may use threats of physical violence to frighten a child but, more often, they will use intimidation to cow and torture a child. They may either threaten to or actually post derogatory information about a child on popular social networking sites, like Facebook or Twitter, and they may use mobile devices to keep in constant contact with their target.

Cyberbullying, regardless of the form it takes, can be exceptionally harmful. Children and young adults are very susceptible to the emotional damage bullying and cyberbullying can cause, and, as Sameer Hinduja, Ph.D. and Justin W. Patchin, Ph.D. argue in their paper “Cyberbullying and Suicide,” cyberbullying can make young adults significantly more likely to consider suicide. Hinduja and Patchin find that this particular kind of adolescent peer aggression makes its victims twice as likely to attempt suicide compared with those who have not experienced it.

Many people have been asking me if there are any laws or legislation in place to govern cyberbullying.  I have pulled together a list of the states laws on bullying and what they mean in a short blog post below. 

This guest post is from Tina Kehoe, a stay-at-home mom of three wonderful kids and a frequent writer on digital parenting topics.

A little girl named Marie, who happens to be in eighth grade, recently received an anonymous text that reads “we are going to have sex next Friday after the dance. Or else." The little girl trembles in shock and fear as she ponders whether she should go to an authority figure or just live in fearful suspense, wondering if the sender is telling the truth. Another sixth grader in New York is plagued by the school bully, so he retaliates via text that “You and your sisters and mom better watch your backs. My dad has a gun."

In today's day and age, bullying is not only done in person, but via the Internet as well. Physical altercations are just as harmful to a child as verbal ones, and a greater deal of harm can be done online, where there is a large network available for these bullying teens to put down their victims. They aren't just picking on them at school in front of a few others, but they are writing horrible things to them or about them on the Internet, spreading like wildfire, doing damage to the bullied child's reputation and psyche.

We’ve all come across people who exaggerate their physical attributes online.  Usually, this is harmless e.g., when someone uses a profile photo from five years ago when they were much slimmer or pretends to be a couple inches taller than they really are.  However, the scenario changes when someone makes up a completely fake identity and interacts with people online using that identity, a deception which is called “catfishing.”

This is a blog post from Cory Eridon at HubSpot about the newest Facebook feature Graph Search. We thought you all might enjoy!  Stay tuned for how this will affect Facebook monitoring and our parental intelligence system. 

Well folks, it's the moment we've all been waiting for. Facebook announced its big news today -- the stuff we've all been sitting at the edge of our seats for, the release we've been pontificating about (read what some of our ideas ... and your own were ... about Facebook's big reveal)! So ... what the heck is it?

Well, we were right! Kind of. It's a new search engine called Graph Search! As Facebook puts it, the new search engine, which is

uKnowKids is pleased to announce that we have released our eBook entitled "Understanding Sexting: Nine Things Every Parent Should Know"!  This eBook is free of charge to the public and jammed full of imporant information for parents of digital kids!  After downloading and reading this eBook, parents will learn:

Many parents who took precautions to make sure that their children under 13 didn’t have a Facebook account failed to realize that Instagram was also a social networking site.  At first, Instagram just seemed like a photo-sharing app and some parents were even excited that their kids were taking an interest in photography.  Soon, they realized that, just like Facebook, Instagram gives you the ability to post comments on photos.  And that was where the downward spiral began, with kids posting nasty comments about each other and feeling left out when others posted photos of themselves doing things together.

But this wasn’t all.  Like Facebook, Instagram is full of unsavory individuals trying to contact others without knowing them.  There have been instances reported of kids being contacted by pedophiles trying to get their hands on photos of young girls.  They mask themselves as some type of legitimate business like a radio station running a contest, knowing that this is sure to lure young people.

Social media can be a scary thing for parents.  More and more people are joining Facebook and Twitter every day; and many of those people who join these social networks are children and teenagers.  Social media has taken the place of the "playground", in that predators no longer need to physically hang out with children to obtain access to them.  

In Missouri, one school is taking the steps to inform parents about how to keep their kids safe with social media.  Detective Ed Bailey of the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force recently attended parent/teacher conferences at Carl Junction High School to talk to parents about the importance of online safety for their children.  Detective Bailey stated that the key is to get kids to understand how much of their personal information needs to be safeguarded at all costs.  And since many kids generally operate in an "it will never happen to me" frame of mind, getting the message across is difficult.

In a world that is now run almost exclusively by computers,  cyberbullying has become a very real threat in the lives of our children and teenagers.  In fact, statistics show that among a population of 13 to 17 year olds, more than 43% have experienced some form of cyberbullying within the last year alone.  That statistic is staggering.  Cyberbullying takes on many forms, and each one is harmful to a child, causing anxiety, depression and sometimes even suicide.

Gossip

Gossip takes on a new definition when it's done online.  When we were kids, gossiping was mostly harmless.  And even though it spread quickly when one of your friends had a juicy tale to tell you, it's nowhere near how quickly gossip spreads online.  In just a few clicks of the mouse, information gets transferred from one person to another, causing an incredible amount of harm.  Through the use of social networks, any information is easily announced to world via a Facebook wall post.  Internet gossip can devastate a child.  

Did your child, tween or teen get a new phone (or perhaps their first mobile phone) as a gift this year? If so, you would probably like to make sure they are using it appropriately. Since cell phones are part our every day life, of course children will want their own phone to send and receive message to their friends. There is no problem with this if you feel your child is responsible. However, if you’re worried, you can still have the authority to monitor their text messages. Text message monitoring does not make you the bad guy, its actually a helpful cause especially if you think your child is being bullied over texts or sending inappropriate things. Keep these tips in mind if you’re looking to monitor their messages.

FACEBOOK SAFETY ALERT

Shared via Yahoo! News: The latest controversy over who can use your Instagram photos is far from an isolated event.

Facebook's photosharing site Instagram backtracked Tuesday on its new user privacy policy that would have allowed the site to sell users' photos to advertising agencies.

After a huge outcry from Instagram users on both Facebook and Twitter, co-founder Kevin Systrom wrote on the company's blog:

What you need to know about text message monitoring and digital parenting this holiday season.

Parents often want two things: to be the "cool" parent, and to be the parent that can trust their children no matter what. Unfortunately, in the age of texting and social media, trust is usually a luxury parents cannot afford. In fact, for young children especially, it's a parent's responsibility to monitor their children's online habits to make sure they are using the power of modern day technology safely. 

Here is a festive guest post from our friend Raven over at Ms. MommyHH6 for our Military Appreciation Month. Read on for fun ideas for children and then go visit her blog!

Magical Ideas to Make this Christmas Special (at the last minute)

It’s Christmas time!!!   My entire family is “tech” lovers and there are so many great ideas for gifts this year.  There are also some great ideas to keep the magic of Santa alive for younger children!

Here is a guest post about Twitter from Chelsea, over at Diamonds, Dogtags and Diapers. Read on to see how she uses twitter for many aspects of her life, and visit her blog when you are done!

Digital Besties -- Tweeing as a professional, parent and friend

To tweet or not to tweet? Hashtags (#) have invaded our favorite television shows and even places where they don’t belong – like Facebook and text messages.

uKnowKids is pleased to announce that we have released our eBook and SlideShare, both entitled "11 Digital Services Every Military Family Needs", for our Military Appreciation Month. Everyone knows how important technology is to our servicemembers and their families, and since uKnow.com is a tech and internet safety company, we are fortunate enough to be able to give a little something back to our servicemen.